"Sorry folks but I am tired of agruing the point with people who haven't got a clue about what they are talking about, purely because they are looking for someone to blame, and basically that someone must not be American, because that suits the script according to St Barack Obama."

In addition to being sheer B.S., that pretty well illustrates what Teribus's whine is all about—in addition to ignoring the fact that some of us know exactly what we're talking about.

Frankly, I don't believe he has the expertise he claims he has. Either that, or he is trying to shine everybody on.

From MSNBC:

HOUSTON — Before rig workers aboard the doomed Deepwater Horizion drilling platform performed a procedure that BP says may have been a "fundamental mistake," there was a "skirmish" between BP and Transocean staff about whether to proceed, the rig's chief mechanic told federal investigators on Wednesday.

The testimony corroborated other witness statements obtained by The Associated Press that show Transocean managers complained BP was "taking shortcuts" the day of the explosion by replacing heavy drilling fluid with saltwater in the well that blew out.

(Drilling "mud" is a man-made product, a sort of viscous slurry designed to control the up-rush of oil. It is about twice as heavy and dense as sea-water. "Mud" is 1) expensive, and 2) it can be recycled and reused. BP, maintaining that the mud was no longer necessary to control the flow of oil, wanted to salvage it for re-use, so they ordered that it be withdrawn for recycling and replaced with sea water.)

Speaking to a federal board of investigators in Kenner, Louisiana, mechanic Douglas Brown said that around noon on April 20, the day of the explosion, rig workers met in a room adjacent to the rig's galley and "there was an argument that took place and a difference of opinions."

Brown said "a skirmish" took place between "the company man" from BP — whose name he said he did not know — and three Transocean employees.

"The company man was basically saying, 'Well this is how it's going to be,'" and Transocean rig workers "reluctantly agreed," Brown said.

Brown said the top Transocean official on the rig grumbled, "Well, I guess that's what we have those pinchers for" — which he took to be a reference to devices on the blowout preventer, the five-story piece of equipment that can slam a well shut in an emergency.

Blowout preventers are installed as a routine precaution. They are a bit analagous to a parachute. As long as the airplane is well-maintained and flown with competence, the parachute will not be necessary.

Had the drilling procedure not been interfered with by bean-counters more concerned with cost-cutting than safety, they never would have found out that the BOP was defective.

####

This came in a newsletter I received in this morning's e-mail:

BP is at it again!

Despite the catastrophe in the Gulf, BP is moving forward with a controversial project to drill in the Arctic. In order to get around the Obama Administration's moratorium on off-shore drilling, BP has built "Liberty Island" three miles off the Alaskan Coast and plans to drill two miles under the sea and then six to eight miles horizontally to tap an underwater reserve.

An oil spill in the Arctic would be far worse than what continues to unfold in the Gulf. There is no proven technology for cleaning up oil in icy water and the nearest emergency and relief supports are thousands of miles away.

Ignoring the lessons of this most recent disaster, Federal regulators even allowed BP to write its own environmental review for the project! We cannot allow for history to repeat itself.

Secretary of the Interior, Ken Salazar, has the ability to STOP this catastrophe before it happens and YOU have the ability to influence Secretary Salazar.

Button to click to sign a petition to Ken Salazar.

I did.

Don Firth